Despite Hollywood’s big streaming era boom going bust, top industry creatives and execs gathered in Toronto at the Access Canada Summit presented by The Hollywood Reporter were urged to stay buckled in for a roller coaster ride that promises both challenges and opportunities in an increasingly worldwide business.

“Every business model that we thought was set in stone is completely up for grabs. Independent film — nobody has any idea how to how to make a business model out of that anymore. We’re seeing commercial television collapse on itself. The studios are in chaos. It’s sort of the worst of times and the best of times, because opportunities are open for people,” Scott Roxborough, European bureau chief for THR, told a panel of THR journalists and editors that revealed key trends, challenges and opportunities for a global entertainment industry.

And globalization will remain an inexorable force in entertainment, argued Maer Roshan, THR Editor-in-Chief, as the marquee trade publication follows that trend with international editions for Spain, Japan, India, Italy, India and soon the U.K.

“I wasn’t born in America, so I always have known how important the rest of the world is. Some Americans don’t, but look even in American culture. South Korean films and music have been so dominant, and that’s part of our mandate, increasingly,” Roshan insisted during a panel moderated by Jeanie Pyun, deputy editorial director of THR

With the U.S. media industry beset by rising costs and shrinking production budgets, the three days of talking business and networking at Access Canada Summit during the Toronto Film Festival underlined the importance of international partnerships and co-productions to share the risk and rewards from producing entertainment content for the world.

A case in point is Netflix’s North of North comedy set in Canada’s remote Arctic region and a co-production with the local CBC and ATPN networks. “If we are really putting our creators and talent first to tell the best stories, we can’t do it on our own,” Sally Catto, general manager, entertainment, factual and sports at the CBC, Canada’s public broadcaster, told another Summit panel that featured homegrown decision-makers.

Catto added the partnership was about more than getting a bigger production budget for global series. “It was a true creative partnership. It was overseeing the creative process, together and collectively. That’s real progress,” she said during an Access Canada Summit designed to help attendees navigate the entertainment industry’s latest ups and downs.

Mia Galuppo, a film writer at THR, pointed to another key industry trend: film audiences, and especially young people, returning to the multiplex as the major studios rediscover the theatrical window and smaller indie specialty film distributors regain their footing in cinemas.

“A lot of filmmakers will forego the larger streaming paychecks that they would have taken five, 10 years ago. Instead, they take less money with a confirmed theatrical release,” Galuppo said, as she pointed to Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights bypassing streaming play on Netflix for a Warner Bros. theatrical release after that Hollywood studio did big business with Brad Pitt’s F1 at the multiplex.

But even as Hollywood enters a potentially more positive feedback loop with more consistent tentpole releases and a rebound in box office revenue, THR writers debated whether a sustained recovery is possible if risk-averse major studios continue to embrace franchise sequels and movie classic reboots.

Scott Feinberg, executive editor, awards at THR, pointed to recent big business for a re-release of Steven Spielberg’s Jaws 50 years after its first appearance in cinemas, and KPop Demon Hunters becoming Netflix’s most viewed movie ever. “I really wonder what the takeaway is going to be for all of us,” Feinberg questioned.

Galuppo said Jaws drew in part younger film lovers who hadn’t seen the summer thriller a half-century ago, and enjoyed being part of a theatrical event as was KPop Demon Hunters and its box office win as a sing-along version was released in theaters.

But Steven Zeitchik, senior editor, technology and politics at THR, countered the major studios may continue to opt for sequels over original ideas to woo theatrical audiences, with implications for the business.

“Look, F1 was a great success that had Brad Pitt involved. But if you don’t have a big brand, or even if you do, it’s much easier and cheaper and safer for (the studios) to re-release stuff, to not take a flyer on something completely new and original. So maybe the distinction becomes we still go to theaters, but we don’t go to discover something new in quite the same way,” Zeitchik said.

Amid talk of evolving and new business models and production shifts, Canadian creatives and execs at the Access Canada Summit weren’t shy about talking up their own bona fides as co-production partners and their country hosting production hubs in Toronto and Vancouver for the major studios and streamers.

Justin Stockman, vp of content development and programming at Bell Media, touted the Canadian media giant looking to sell more homegrown shows to the U.S. and the world by bringing some of Canada’s biggest stars back home to make series.

“Canadians are some of the biggest creators in the world. They may not live in Canada right now, but they are Canadian and many of them left to work on big budget projects that this market couldn’t afford on their own,” Stockman told a local decision-makers panel. Bell Media has signed series development pacts with Lionsgate, Elliot Page’s Pageboy Productions, Seth Rogen’s Point Grey Pictures and Tom Green’s production banner to produce original scripted TV series.

“Let’s repatriate (Canadian stars) and partner with UK or Australian or U.S. broadcasters or streamers or distributors to get these projects made… We’re trying to find the Canadians that would love to work in Canada, but just need more money to do projects that are worthy of their talent, and then try to get those international partnerships to come together,” Stockman added.

Besides panel sessions, the Access Canada Summit offered emerging creators opportunities to meet with established players and media execs for possible dealmaking, or to just gain insights into industry trends like artificial intelligence, shrinking production budgets and doing more cross-border and international co-productions.

Jennifer Abram, senior vp of content and marketing at Corus Entertainment, argued the days when her broadcast company wanted to own and control all rights to content for distribution are steadily being replaced by creative and commercial partnerships to spread the risk on original series.

“It’s been liberating, because the collaboration, the creative conversations, are richer, the opportunities and ideas are becoming bigger than we could have on our own. So it’s not just about sharing the financial risk or obligations around getting a project made. In some ways, it’s about making them bigger and bringing Canadian content to stages all over the world,” Abram argued.

The Toronto Film Festival continues through to Sunday.